Will Rising Crime Dampen Holiday Shopping Spirits?
With carjacking, robbery, and mass shoplifting incidents on the rise, some shoppers and retailers are nervous this year.
“How do you fight shoplifting?” wondered the Washington Post editorial board on November 18, 2023. “Not by locking down everything in CVS.”
“Shoppers visiting the CVS Pharmacy at 14th and Irving streets NW in Washington recently must think they traveled back in time to the Soviet Union,” began the editorial board. “The store’s shelves are bare. The refrigerator cases are devoid of food or beverages. When we visited, only sunscreen and greeting cards were on display. But the bizarre scene is not a result of a failed planned economy; rampant theft is the cause.”
As to the cause of rampant theft, the WP editorial board was prepared to be surprisingly explicit.
“A better legal framework won’t help much if it’s not aggressively enforced, though,” noted the WP. “We heard from a Columbia Heights shopper who witnessed a mass shoplifting and emailed CVS corporate headquarters about it. A regional manager responded that the problem was that police do not pursue cases when CVS reports them. (A CVS spokesperson declined to comment.)”
“Even if police do make an arrest, it often does not lead to prosecution,” wrote the WP editorial board. “The…